Never before, in the duration of this course, have I ever been so thankful to be done with a game. I admit that my boredom with Pokemon GO is based on my lack of nostalgia with the Pokemon franchise. The rest of the boredom is based on the lack of excitement offered in playing the game. The design is overly simplified with no indication of how to operate the app. Add in the elements of gamificiation that are within the game, and I am one frustrated player.

One new design feature that I encountered in the game was the integration of new style features for the avatar. While the avatars available are not very representative, the added features allow the avatars to become even more customizable. But wait! To make the avatar look anything like an actual person, you have to pay! Pretty soon, the app itself will not be free.

All of this frustration reminded me of my internship supervisor this summer. She became very frustrated with the concept of Pokemon GO and the players as she has been a dedicated Ingress player for a few years. As I was reminded of this, I decided that when I deleted the app on my phone when I was done playing, I would try Ingress for a small portion of time to compare the ‘original’ format with the ‘new’ format. And in comparison, Ingress is AWESOME! The design, the tutorials, the explanation of the game narrative! In comparison to a Pokestop, the Ingress app walks you through your first deployment of a resonator so that you don’t walk through the app blindly. And with this new experience with the ‘original’ app, I have to ask how much pressure Niantic was under to produce Pokemon GO by a certain deadline. With the fanbase of Pokemon being much larger than an app like Ingress, there must have been some pressure to release the game by a certain date. But why was the design simplified so much? Were the creators of Pokemon GO at Niantic so driven by the possibility of profit from the app that they completely threw out any element of meticulous workmanship in the design of the game? I don’t know, but I think I may keep playing Ingress for a bit longer…

I had been hoping to complete my time playing Pokemon GO without encountering any blatant forms of gamification, because I knew that it would add to my frustration with the game. I was getting more confident in what little I could do with the app. I was catching Pokemon and gaining more experience by swirling my finger over the Pokeball. I was finding new Pokemon as I played at different points in town. And then my downfall occurred.

As I was playing today, I happened upon a new Pokemon that I did not have in my Pokedex. I immediately tried to catch it when the app told me that I was out of Pokeballs and needed to purchase more. At this point in playing, I had not seen any indication of the amount of Pokeballs that I possessed or used. Then suddenly, I am being told that to even try to catch any more Pokemon, I needed to pay a dollar to get another 100 Pokeballs. I will admit (as I have in class already) that I am cheap. I don’t like additional purchases that are not on essential items. I am not a fan of freemiums, subscription services, or in-app purchases. So this notification just irked me. So much so that I immediately closed my app and did not try to open it again for a few hours. From the company’s side, I see that benefit in making the purchase so small. If the player is really into the game and wants to continue, why not spend a dollar? From the player’s perspective, I was quite confused. I knew there was the possibility of in-app purchases, but with no indicator as to when those in-app purchases would occur and limit my playing, I felt that I fell into the company’s trap. And if I wasn’t disenchanted with the game (or cheap), I wouldn’t mind paying the extra dollar every time that I need more Pokeballs.

One of the most frustrating things, next to the battery drainage, of this app is the constant need to update. I was ready to play when I add a nice afternoon. And I lost 15 minutes of buffer time because of having to update the app. With my older model of phone, I even had to delete a couple apps to make room for the game. My frustration level to begin playing was a little higher than I had expected when I set aside time to play today.

I did have the chance to test out a few of the game mechanics that we had discussed in class this week. I found that I did gain more experience points when my pokeball hit a smaller target and in spinning my finger on the screen. But, like we discussed in class, these are not intuitive. I can see this being a benefit for the game designers when the game was most popular after its release. If they only let a few sources know, those sources can spread the word about how to get more points and level up without the company having to invest and create tutorials in the game. But playing this long after the popularity craze of the game makes it harder to learn the ‘unspoken’ mechanics of the game.

I also tried to battle in a gym using augmented reality. And I never want to do that again. I am still completely lost on what I am even supposed to be doing in a gym. Add in a viewpoint that is based on the location of the camera of my phone, I become even more lost. And this makes me even more frustrated. I kept moving my phone around just to try to see what was going on in the battle, and no matter where I moved my phone, I couldn’t see anything! At this point in time, there is nothing that is intuitive about using this game, especially with augmented reality. Without nostalgia for the Pokemon franchise, my motivation as a player is draining. And fast.

Play time: Sporadically throughout the day

I have experienced playing these games around my friends twice before this, and I have to say that each time has been a unique experience. I believe I have stated this before, but the friends that I play around in Eugene do not identify as gamers and have little to no experience with video games. When I played Zork and WoW around those friends, they found that it was an entertaining experience because there was a designated beginning and end to the play experience. With Pokemon GO, they have begun to get annoyed. And I don’t blame them.

As a personal practice, I try to stay away from my technology when I am in a social situation so that I can be present in the conversation. So naturally, it has become a pet peeve of mine when I see my friends on their phones when we are having a conversation. Now I am doing that! I find myself opening the app out of a sense of obligation to the assignment so that I have ample experience with the game. And my friends have yelled at me when they see me looking at my phone because they know I have a technology pet peeve. Add in the fact that the popularity of the game has petered out since the summer, and I realize that I am starting to feel subconscious about playing in public areas. I know that my friends are not being rude when they point out others playing, but there is a small indication of judgment in their intonation. It happened when we were getting dinner at the Bier Stein and a woman sitting at the table next to us had her phone on the table with the app open and playing. One friend said “Oh she’s playing too!” while the other two rolled their eyes. While it may limit the already limited amount of time I can play, I am going to try to refrain from playing when I am with my friends in certain social situations.

Play time: Sporadically throughout the day

I have discovered some disadvantages to the game. The first being the need to operate the app with the highest screen lighting setting. As a person with very sensitive-to-light eyes, I found this to be frustrating as I was playing on my way home from campus. Because the screen brightness was adjusted to be so low on my phone, I could not see anything on my screen because of the glare. So for a good portion of my walk, I was simply hitting random parts of the screen because the only thing I could see on my phone was my reflection.

By this point in the day, I was starting to get kind of hungry. Add in the general annoyance from people not sharing the sidewalk (Gee thanks, mister! I really would rather walk through a mud puddle than be on the sidewalk!), and my patience was wearing thin by the time that I was playing consistently while walking. I did change my path home and found that the number of Pokemon available on 13th was much higher than on 15th (an advantage to trying to avoid the construction that we WEREN’T INFORMED OF). I was even able to enter a training gym as well. Hi, Team Mystic! Granted I chose Mystic because I was already very annoyed with the app taking forever with introducing the trainers and teams. By the time that I was to start training my Pokemon, I was ready to shut down the app. Then begins the battle, when I realize that I have no idea how to operate within a gym and can barely try to figure it out when I can barely see what is happening on the screen. The one highlight of my hangry playing time was finally figuring out where the settings on the app are to switch to power saving mode. Hopefully, this will save a little bit of power in the future days I’m playing.